Back at the beginning of the year I was lucky enough to get a preview with the then upcoming Nintendo 3DS, along with some of the major games that would be coming out in the first few months of release. I left that event massively excited for the next step in Nintendo’s path towards global gaming domination (Gamination?), and willing to do some dirty and depraved stuff to get my hands on one. I’d seen, and I believed…  As the months passed, however, so too did my excitement. An ultimately lacklustre library at launch wasn’t helped by the slow release of additional games and features, and these did little to boost the 3DS’ disappointing sales.

With Sony launching their Playstation Vita later this year, Nintendo need to pull their fingers out and deliver some amazing titles or risk the 3DS becoming a flash in the pan. With that in mind I recently made my way to another Nintendo event which would show off the upcoming blockbuster 3DS titles, and some of the future games gracing the Wii before it ends up totally neglected in the build-up to the launch of the Wii U. After a journey that was as unreal and nightmarish as the glassy stares at the nearby Madame Tussauds (not to mention the waxworks on display there), I was more than ready to take on the best Nintendo had to offer.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

The first game on the list was the one I was most looking forward to, and one I’ve been itching to own since Shigeru Miyamoto revealed the original sketch all the way back at E3 2009 – The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. As soon as I arrived at the event I marched to where it was being displayed, sat down, and prepared to play a very different demo to the one I queued up for nearly two hours to play at the last Eurogamer Expo, desperate to spend more time with the latest game in a series which has defined my gaming experience since I was a child. The demo was comprised of three different segments of the game – one that takes place at the beginning of the story, a time-limited journey through the Sky Temple, and an early boss fight with the new antagonist in the game (Skyward Sword is the first home console Zelda game that doesn’t feature Ganon as the main villain).

The first part of the demo takes place early on, before Link embarks on the main quest of the story; he’s taking part in a competition against his peers to capture a trophy from a bird, with the prize at stake being the titular Zelda, not a princess this time around, but an important childhood friend. Jumping off of the ground at a point above cloud level, Link soon grabs a bird and rides on to win the prize and become the best in the village. It’s kind of like that scene in Avatar where he’s trying to bond with the bird, but with people throwing eggs at you. What would have been a great example of gameplay was, however, marred by the fact that the sequence focuses on the use of the Wiimotionplus controller, which can cause the sequence to drag on for longer than it should do if you’re not accustomed to it. It wasn’t a bad sequence by any means, but it felt like an odd one to showcase how amazing the game is going to be to potential buyers.

Moving on to the Sky Temple, I found myself having to play through this part of the demo several times in order to fully experience it. The first time in order to get to grips with the weapons and items at my disposal, with subsequent playthroughs spent trying to explore the temple as best I could or experimenting with items before the time limit ran out. It’s not something you’d be able to appreciate as much going into it cold, but once I ‘warmed up’ and accustomed myself to the control scheme, the temple seemed to open up to me in what I could do. Exploring allowed me to see some of the more subtle ways that the game experience has changed for this iteration in the series, though I have to admit I laughed when one puzzle involved pushing a giant block, something Miyamoto and long-standing series director/designer Eiji Aonuma joked wouldn’t be part of the games any more at last year’s E3, as they wanted to avoid familiar puzzles.

It was a shame that I couldn’t explore the temple much farther than I wanted to, owing to it timing out before I got too far, but it felt like a great way to familiarise myself with the items and the way Nintendo are trying to evolve the series, rather than sticking with tradition. That break from tradition was also felt in the boss fight which formed the final part of the demo and introduced the de-facto villain for Skyward Sword – Ghirahim.  Or, as he prefers to be called, Lord Ghirahim. With a look that I can best describe as androgynous and a seemingly camp manner, he immediately captures your attention as someone completely different from the other villains in the Zelda series, and quite unlike anything else. What makes him all the more captivating is the fact that he isn’t even interested in killing you, announcing that his intention is to instead beat Link to within an inch of his life. After you’ve dealt enough damage, he halts the fight – not because he’s been defeated, but because, despite surprising him with your skill, he announces that you’ve done nothing more than waste his time. Upon his departure he warns you that he’ll kill you the next time he sees you. It’s a sequence that, along with the segment from the Sky Temple, cemented how badly I need this game come release. It feels like a natural evolution of the series, and Ghirahim promises to be a villain quite unlike what we have witnessed before. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword releases later this year as part of Nintendo’s celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the franchise, and it may end up being the greatest adventure of the hero in the green tunic since Ocarina of Time.

Luigi’s Mansion 2

It’s not always easy being a hero in green though – as Luigi would no doubt tell you. Living in the shadow of his more famous brother for all those years couldn’t have been easy and, despite being a staple character in the Mario universe, it wasn’t until 2001 before he got a chance to shine as the title character in a game (we’re not counting the 1993 “Mario Is Missing!” edutainment release). Armed with nothing but a flashlight, a vacuum cleaner, and a Game Boy Horror, Luigi’s Mansion became the best selling launch title on the Gamecube and one fondly remembered by many fans of the console.

A sequel was announced at E3, to be released early next year and, luckily for me, the spook-fest was available to play with a demo time limited to fifteen minutes, during which I set out to rid one of the multiple mansions in the game of its incorporeal squatters.  Those who played and loved the original will have little to worry about here, as the demo I played had nearly everything intact from the original – you still have to capture ghosts, and you can still grab loads of money hidden inside the mansions to get a better rank at the end. This time around though there was no Game Boy Horror, owing to the fact that the Game Boy Colour was discontinued in 2003.  Another difference is that Luigi has to charge up the flashlight to fire strobes in order to stun enemies, before unleashing the furious suction of his Poltergust 5000.

The gameplay is incredibly similar and I had just as much fun in the demo as I did in the original game. With a slightly bigger focus on the puzzle side of the gameplay this time around, Luigi’s Mansion 2 should be a blast to play, save for two niggling concerns. The first of these is that, from what I played, the game seemed to lack the iconic soundtrack that so defined my experience with the original, and my fear is that, without the amazing sound design which often left the player with naught but the sound of footsteps and of Luigi humming, the game may be left without the unique atmosphere that helped define the original. The other worry I have comes from the controls as, while they’re mostly great, you have to tilt the 3DS and use the inbuilt gyroscopes in order to move the vacuum around when you’re trying to grab treasure or not directly capturing ghosts. It would be fine if there were an alternative control method, but it leaves the player in the awkward position of having to turn off the handheld’s 3D visual effect in order to actually be able to see the action effectively. Playing the demo actually left me with a lot of confidence in the game though, and hopefully the only thing that’ll suck come release will be the Poltergust 5000.

Kirby Wii

When talking about things that suck in Nintendo’s games, the less cynical amongst you would probably cast their thoughts to that cute, lovable puffball known as Kirby. Coming off the back of the widespread critical acclaim for Kirby’s Epic Yarn, he’ll also star in the upcoming Kirby Returns to Dreamland (or Kirby Wii for short), as well as Kirby: Mass Attack.  Kirby Wii is much closer to the style of the original games than the recent Epic Yarn, and you’ll find yourself racing through the admittedly large levels, gobbling up enemies and carving the cutest trail of destruction around.

The twist in this instalment of the franchise comes when you shake the Wiimote as Kirby inhales – doing so allows him to suck up multiple items, and the occasional massive enemy, before letting it all rip again in the form of an incredibly destructive screen-filling star. If Kirby sucks up certain foes in this manner, it can allow him to inherit superpowered versions of their abilities which transform the pink ball into a force to be reckoned with.

During the hands on demo Kirby found himself with super sword and fire abilities at different points, and pressing the attack button in either state caused the action to pause while Kirby either struck the land before him with a sword that’d make Cloud’s Buster Sword from Final Fantasy VII look like a toothpick, or razed everything to the ground with a giant goddamned dragon. There’s also little limit to the amount of times you can use these powers and, unlike in other Kirby titles, getting hit doesn’t cause you to lose them, giving the game the unfortunate side-effect of feeling far too easy and playing things safe.

That feeling doesn’t go away when comparing Kirby Wii against Kirby: Mass Attack, a game that’s coming out for the DS months after attention has shifted to its 3D successor. Mass Attack starts off like most of Kirby’s recent adventures – when he’s attacked by a foe that leaves him cursed with some kind of affliction; this time he’s been split into ten and the game tasks you with putting him back together. Using only the touch screen and starting off with just one Kirby, I was left to experiment my way through the levels available, not because it left me without instruction but because the information it gave me was still in Japanese. Guiding him through each level is simple enough, but it’s how the growing number of Kirbys changes the way you play that truly grabbed my attention. When given just one or two of the adorable hero, enemies are a struggle to fight against, obstacles are precisely that, and areas of each level become inaccessible. If you find enough fruit for them to eat though, you’ll soon find yourself with a small army that can easily devour its way through the level, and the difference as a result is enough that I actually found myself wanting to spend even more time with the game than the demo could give me, just to experiment more and go for bigger high-scores. It’s madcap, a little bit mental, and something that could only have come from Japan.

Rhythm Heaven Wii

That’s also the best way to describe the next game I played – Rhythm Heaven Wii. With an art and gameplay style not far removed from the Warioware series, it’ll feel familiar to players accustomed to those games, but with enough disparity between the two that it doesn’t feel like a carbon copy. While Warioware has you playing loads of micro-games around five seconds long which require the player to do one thing, Rhythm Heaven tasks the player with performing a single mini-game for several minutes and to keep the rhythm going in order to help finish the song and get a better overall ranking. In a more serene atmosphere it’d be perfectly possible to beat each challenge if you closed your eyes and just listened to the music, but you’d also miss out on just how oddball and wacky this game is.

In the three mini-games available in the demo, I helped a viking eat his dinner, a samurai recover a pin-wheel, and a cat and dog play a game of badminton whilst flying biplanes. That last one was seriously difficult, and it only occurred to me after yet another attempt at trying to complete it that the game had me hooked – and all I was required to do was just press the ‘A’ button on the Wiimote. In just that one mini-game alone I was becoming totally lost in what was happening, despite having no idea what was being said thanks to the demo being in Japanese, as well as also trying my best to ignore the logical impossibility of a cat and a dog being able to fly biplanes, let alone play badminton at the same time, without either crashing. It’s truly a game that you have to play for yourself, as otherwise you’re left on the outside wondering why people are getting so engrossed. With a multiplayer mode present in the final game you’ll want to get as many people playing as possible when it’s eventually released worldwide.

Xenoblade Chronicles

One game that currently isn’t planned to be released worldwide is Xenoblade Chronicles – released in Japan last year and slated for a release in Europe on the 19th of August. American gamers have launched the ‘Operation Rainfall’ campaign to try and persuade Nintendo of America to localise it for the region alongside other Japan and Europe exclusives: The Last Story and Pandora’s Tower. Naturally curious as to what the fuss was all about, I snatched up a classic controller and threw myself head-first into Xenoblades Chronicles.

One thing I noticed when dispatching the various creatures around me was how differently it played from most RPGs I’m used to. Battles aren’t just caused by making contact with enemies, and for the most part the creatures I found myself fighting were only acting in self defence. In order to initiate combat, I had to bring up an on-screen menu and start the battle from there, with my various attack prompts and abilities available to be selected from the same display as I was able to move around freely and attack from any angle. While I was able to swap between either character in the party through the pause menu, allowing me to fully exploit their different abilities in combat, another layer of strategy was added as the monsters would only attack the party member who was causing the most damage, meaning that I was able to use the AI partner as a distraction while I sneaked around and caused some trouble of my own. My time with the demo ended when I ‘accidentally’ started a fight with a boss who killed me within seconds, but from what I played I can certainly understand why some gamers across the pond are desperate for a North American translation. Here’s hoping Nintendo actually have the bloody sense to do it.

Resident Evil: Revelations

While the library of games for the 3DS may be lacking at the moment, it won’t be devoid of zombies any time soon, thanks to the valiant efforts of Capcom. Having recently released Resident Evil Mercenaries 3D, the franchise will be scrambling for more brains next year with the release of Resident Evil: Revelations, placed chronologically between the fourth and fifth Resi Evil games. The demo put me in control of Jill Valentine, as she awoke in a strange room on board a cruise ship. Though the game is firmly rooted in the over-the-shoulder perspective and controls of the last major entries in the series, it actually feels more like a combination of both the newer and older styles of Resi titles. The areas are tight and claustrophobic, enemies jump out at you, and the atmosphere is truly chilling, but it wasn’t until later on in the demo that I realised how much you’ll need to keep your mindset in the old-school as much as the new.  Trapped in a tight corridor with another unexplainable horror in front of me, I readied my gun only to discover that I’d run out of ammo seconds before the abomination ended both Jill’s life and the demo. It wasn’t scripted, but it took me absolutely by surprise, and proved that the series hasn’t abandoned what made the originals such successful horror games – you’re going to have to use your brain unless you want it to get eaten.

Super Mario 3D Land

Capcom aren’t the only company to mesh retro with modern though, as Nintendo themselves have done the same thing with the upcoming Super Mario. Renamed Super Mario 3D Land – hopefully still a working title – and given a tentative release date of November, the game combines the iconic Super Mario Bros. with the masterful Super Mario Galaxy, giving players the best of both worlds. It looks beautiful on the 3DS, and from what I’ve played it’s also the best use of 3D on the machine so far; it helps everything look a lot more vibrant and actually adds to the gameplay, especially during the side-scrolling sections where you discover you can run into the background and travel back there too.

Helping to compound this are the new teleportation blocks scattered among the levels, often unlocking a different path. That’s not all – the game also brings back the fan-favourite tankooni suit from Super Mario Bros. 3, which lets the player slowly descend from a jump and temporarily turn into an invincible statue. Though I wasn’t able to turn Mario into a statue during my time playing, it did genuinely feel like a welcome return and something that improved the experience, rather than appearing for nostalgia’s sake. Also returning are the comet coins from the Galaxy games, giving the player the optional challenge of trying to collect all three in each level, and in so doing helps confirm how well the 3D fits into the action, as utilising it is key to grabbing some of the collectables.

Other returning additions come in the form of being able to save a spare power-up if you’re already using it, and a time limit to each level, although the latter feels unnecessary as you’ll rarely even come close to depleting it; it seems like it just gives you some extra coins as a bonus depending on how quickly you finish a level. When I first played I felt like the action seemed too slow, as Mario’s default speed is just the tiniest bit off, especially for those more used to the Galaxy games where his default speed was running. Holding down the dash button is only slightly annoying, and something most players would do during the classic Super Mario Bros. games, but when confronted with a 3D landscape it seems more like a feature used to prove the nostalgic intent rather than to add anything meaningful to the experience. That being said, if you ever loved a game from either the Bros. or Galaxy series, you’re going to love how the styles combine so expertly to create an experience that manages to feel familiar and new all at once. Scheduled for a release in the holiday season, Super Mario 3D Land is shaping up to be the greatest game to hit the 3DS that isn’t a remake.

Mario Kart 7

Well, Super Mario 3D Land could be the greatest game if the new Mario Kart doesn’t steal that position on the finishing straight. Ever since I was given an N64 and copy of Mario Kart 64, I’ve found myself obsessed with every entry in the series since. There’s just something about Mario Kart which gets me utterly hooked, and it is no different for the 3DS edition – since renamed Mario Kart 7 and scheduled for December. I ended up going back to the demo more times than anything else at the event, soaking in everything I could about the tracks and the new features. Choosing from the eight characters available, I was also able to customise the kart chassis and tyre size – I would have been able to further customise the set-up but the paraglider was the only available modification. The three brand-new tracks I raced on were interesting and, while they lacked the personality of some of the more iconic tracks in the series, they also lacked any gimmicks, save the sections of the tracks where the karts were driving underwater or gliding in the air.

Also gone were many of the more annoying weapons in the series; the demo build I played lacked any lightning bolts or clouds, POW blocks, or even the dreaded bloody blue shell that did nothing but punish a player for simply being in the lead. What has returned, however, is the ability to collect coins and gain some additional speed, though the limit maxed out at ten, and the coins regenerated after each lap – rather undermining their value as a result. Changing the set-up of each kart does actually affect the way they’re driven too, more notably after altering the size of the wheels; the larger variant helps the player push others around and generates boost from drifting more easily, but suffers stiffer cornering, while the smaller wheels generate tighter turning and better control underwater, but boosts take slightly longer to manifest. I may be wrong, but that’s what I was able to discern from what was probably way too much time playing through with a bunch of different characters and kart set-ups.

Though I don’t want to speak too soon, as I’m sure the lack of items and the lacklustre implementation of coins are things that’ll change before the game is released, what had me most excited about Mario Kart 7 was the way that it seemed to give the player more options to play with while making the actual races themselves a more streamlined affair, free of some of the annoyances present in previous games. The action feels fast-paced, and I didn’t feel unnecessarily punished by getting hit with items, especially as the karts seemed to get up to speed far more quickly than in previous releases.

Even though the AI still rubber-band, the game doesn’t make your life a misery just for being in first place, and I even found myself getting boost mushrooms and even red shells while still in the lead. I’m not a fan of the fact that each race only consisted of two laps each, but it didn’t mar my experience with the game.  Fans of previous entries in the series will, hopefully, absolutely love Mario Kart 7 if it keeps up the level of quality shown so far.

Kid Icarus Uprising

Kid Icarus Uprising was the only game present that I’d previously spent any time with in its current state, as I’d already played it at the preview event I attended earlier this year. Having the opportunity to spend as much time as I wanted on it this time around, I opted to skip the opening mission and dove into chapter two, which the demo politely informed me was considered ‘Normal difficulty’ for the game. One new addition was the ability to change my weapon loadout for the upcoming battles, allowing me to replace Kid Icarus’ sword with plenty of other implements of destruction, each with their own nuances in battle and hopefully giving the game some extra depth, as players get to figure out their ideal set-up to maximise their scores.

In terms of gameplay there’s very little to complain about; the on-rails flying sections are fast-paced and frantic affairs, while the ground sections are more varied and trickier to master, thanks in no small part to the, admittedly, lacklustre camera. All this time you’re forced to keep the pace up and kill as many monsters as you can to keep the time limit at bay, as Pit’s wings will burn out after five minutes unless you earn precious extra seconds through every enemy you kill. It’s something that makes sense when in flight, but becomes an unnecessary annoyance on the ground, and my every attempt with the demo left me fading to black as soon as the timer ran out, meaning I was sadly unable to see it through to the end.

What ended up being my favourite part of the game was easily the writing. Back when I first looked at it, I claimed it was “hammy”, but this does it a massive disservice, as Kid Icarus Uprising may contain some of the most hilariously terrible dialogue I have ever witnessed in a game. The best part is that it seems entirely intentional – there’s a moment I witnessed in the later stages of the flying section, which involves a giant wall, that was so hilarious the attendant had to come over and see why I was laughing so hard. I was only too happy to show him why and, rest assured, if “G-Force… in my faaaaaaaace!” and “Yeah, take that, wall!” aren’t memes when the game is released, then I will be severely disappointed.

Mario and Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games

Despite the amazing show of titles at the event, not every game present was a masterpiece in the making. One such example was the tie-in to next year’s pointless, money wasting display of international athleticism and national arrogance. There’s not much I can say about how closely Mario and Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games plays in comparison to its Beijing predecessor, but if it ends up being widely considered an improvement then I don’t want to play the original. The demo was a collection of bland mini-games which managed to keep me awake just barely longer than the events they’re emulating, with the only entertainment coming from ‘dream’ versions of events such as the discus and long jump, which eventually feel rather cynical and one-note. It’s stale and lacks any kind of magic, but if you find yourself going moist over horse-riding or badminton then you’ll gush rivers over the chance to do it in the comfort of your living room with Mario and pals.

Sonic Generations 3DS

Speaking of potential long-squandered, this would be a better time than any to discuss the 3DS version of Sonic Generations. Where the console version of Generations mixes the 2D action of the original games with the 3D style of the newer releases – in a decision on par with baking a cake and icing it with sandpaper – the 3DS version differs by replacing the 3D sections with gameplay based more closely on Sonic 4 and the Sonic Rush titles. What this results in are fast-paced 2D sections where you’ll have to keep stopping and starting to hit things with the homing attack, then holding onto the boost button to speed past everything else since, instead of mixing the conflicting elements together in a way that makes sense, they feel at complete contrast with each other, and make the experience rather schizophrenic.

The part of the demo based on the Sonic of yore was a blissful experience that I could easily go back to again and again, and if the rest of the game was at the same level of quality I’d be more than happy to recommend it. It’s just a shame then that the parts based on the modern Sonic are frustrating events that even managed to bug out on me after I fell off the stage and managed to travel across a quarter of the map before dying. It didn’t help that it took longer to load the stages than it did to actually play them either, but I’m not sure whether that was down to it being a demo build or not. If you’re not caught up in inexplicable circumstances that force you to play this game, then stick with the old Sonic – the new one seems to have been dropped on his head at birth.

Starfox 64 3DS

My ring collecting woes left me with a forlorn heart that I hoped more inexplicably talking animals with attitude would help cure, and that’s why I slowly made my way to where Starfox 64 3DS was situated. Titled ‘Lylat Wars’ here in the UK, the original game was well known for being the first title for the N64 to be packaged with the rumble-pak, helping to prove one of the best features of modern controllers that we all but take for granted today. While the 3DS remake lacks the rumble feature that made the original so famous, this version of Starfox 64 does however utilise the system’s gyroscopes as an alternative play method, as well as offering the ability to replace the images of Fox’s crew with your own photo in the multiplayer modes.

The only mode available during the demo was score attack, tasking the player with scoring as much as possible by reaching the end of the level in a timely manner and wiping out as much of the opposing force as possible. For those like me who haven’t played the original, there will hopefully be plenty to enjoy, but I can only lament that I didn’t get to spend enough time with it as I’d have liked. That, coupled with the gyroscopic movement invalidating the 3D effects and being a less accurate method of control than the analogue nub, meant I was left less than impressed with the game than I ultimately could have been ahead of its release on September 9th.

Mystery Case Files: The Malgrave Incident

During my time at the event I also discovered the latest game in the Mystery Case Files series, and while I’d sadly never heard of it before, The Malgrave Incident is the tenth instalment and the first to grace the Nintendo Wii. Sadly, the only mystery I found myself trying to solve was the case of the missing fun. You can rightly label that joke as lazy, but it’s surprisingly apt considering what direction the demo took. In order to proceed, my character was tasked with finding ten completely random and unrelated items in a room, in order to make the one item he actually needs. I had to do that same puzzle three times… and then the demo finished. Apparently the game changes the items you have to search for in each play-through in a vain attempt at replayability, but they really should have thought about making the game good enough that you’ll even want to complete it once.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater 3DS

Heartbreakingly, the most disappointing game of the event was none other than one of my all-time favourite titles. To me, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is the stealth genre’s greatest champion, and one of the biggest incentives to invest in the 3DS was the knowledge that I’d be able to take the game with me wherever I went. The event I’d been to earlier in the year only showcased a trailer for the game, so when I discovered that it was here in playable form I was off like a shot to plough my way through part of the game’s opening. When the remake was originally announced, many would no doubt have been impressed that they’d found a way to convert the truly massive game into a small cartridge, but there’s a lot left to be desired.

Firstly, even being sympathetic towards the fact the developers have had to convert a control scheme from the Dualshock 2 to a 3DS, it’s woefully inadequate. It’d be ridiculous if they didn’t allow the player to change the controls upon the game’s actual release, but if they don’t then you’re left with a button layout that makes the game overly difficult to play. The touch screen is brutally underutilised, considering how much easier it could have made changing camouflage or your equipment set-up, but instead it just shows a map of the area during gameplay and the baffling control scheme during the loading screens, which I got plenty of time to admire during the demo. Again, I’m hoping that it’s just due to the game being in a demo state, but it just slowed the pace down to a crawl, especially as it moves between gameplay and cutscene quite often during the opening.

The woes don’t end there, as the enemy AI also seems to be slightly more unreliable even than I remember it being, and the first-person aiming didn’t seem to help as the shots fired were oddly inaccurate and had incredibly poor range.  Having been used to tranquillising enemies instantly from a distance, made for an uncomfortable shift when using those same tactics now; instead they made me feel like I was firing a peashooter with especially mushy ammunition. The final nail in the coffin for me comes from the fact that the 3D just doesn’t seem to work either. Despite all my attempts to try it, it left me completely unable to properly witness what was going on during regular gameplay; it didn’t help that the assistant who was watching me kept trying to get me to turn it back on after a while, as they had been instructed to make sure the units at the event had their 3D kept on. To be honest, it was probably naive of me to expect the transition from console to handheld to be totally smooth and, while the port is by no means bad, it’s nothing like I was expecting it to be.  I’m most likely just going to wait until the HD collection hits home consoles later this year – especially as the 3DS port has been moved to 2012.

So, from what I’ve played, how are Nintendo looking in the near-future? Well, it’s unfortunately a bit mixed as, despite some of the fantastic games they have lined up, it’s just not enough. Most of the titles are either coming out in the holiday season or early next year and, until then, the 3DS library is still going to be short of must-have titles that aren’t remakes of already successful releases. Granted, I left the event wanting a 3DS more than ever, and I can’t fault the quality of the titles I played, but it made me want to invest later rather than sooner. Even with the upcoming price drop reducing its value to what it should have been in the first place, there’s still not enough to persuade people on the fence like me to commit to a 3DS in the short term and, as a result, it still feels like they launched the console too early. When Christmas rolls around, there should be some games seriously deserving of your cash waiting for you, and with more blockbuster releases arriving in the opening months of 2012, the end of the year is going to be the best time to think about buying a 3DS, which only gives less justification for the early launch and the small selection of titles we’re left with until then. As for the Wii, it’s had barely any titles worth bothering with so far this year, and gamers will again be forced to wait until at least the end of the year before that happens, with little hope of anything in 2012. Considering how popular the Wii has been, it seems insane that after this year it’ll simply be left to die with a whimper rather than a bang before the Wii U arrives.  On the other hand – The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword… oh, who am I kidding?  I love you, Nintendo.

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